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Observations on cities, governments, economics, and other diversions.

Travels in Europe

This post is part of a series about my trip to Europe in the summer of 2014. See the full itinerary. Since the fall of the iron curtain, tourists worldwide have streamed in to Prague to view lovely medieval edifices, drink pilsner, and appreciate Art Nouveau and Cubism. The historical political center of the extinct Kingdom of Bohemia lies in… Read more →

This post is part of a series about my trip to Europe in the summer of 2014. See the full itinerary. The eastern German city of Dresden is a site of both breathtaking beauty and heartbreaking tragedy. Dresden suffered one of the deadliest bombing campaigns in Europe in World War II. In February 1945, Allied air raids leveled 1,600 acres of… Read more →

This post is part of a series about my trip to Europe in the summer of 2014. See the full itinerary. Cologne is one of several west German cities that dot the Rhine. The city’s name is a corruption of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, the name of the original colony the Romans established in the first century. Roman ruins still remain under… Read more →

This is the first post in a series about my trip to Europe in the summer of 2014. See the full itinerary. In a flat section of northern Europe, the Amstel flows slowly northward toward the sea. Settlers in the 1170s dammed the river, thus creating the Aemstelredamme (Amstel dam) and the city of Amsterdam was born. Over centuries the modest… Read more →